The present invention relates to low-caloric foods and beverages.
As the food life becomes luxurious, people tend to take more foods and beverages than they need, making the obesity notable among them. In the present age where the preference for sweetness is strong, the amount of intake of carbohydrates is more serious for preventing the obesity than that of lipids, and therefore, it is necessary not to take sugar, starch and the like excessively.
However, restricting the intake of sweet foods and processed starch foods results in frustration and stress build up.
If, in view of the fact that all the carbohydrates are decomposed to glucose and then absorbed from the intestinal tract, it is arranged to inhibit absorption of glucose through the intestinal tract, this will result in control of the amount of intake of carbohydrates, enabling the obesity to be prevented while avoiding frustration.
Researches have been made heretofore from the above viewpoint, and it has been considered that a certain kind of polysaccharide (for example, dextran) has an effect of controlling the increase in blood sugar content which arises from intake of sugar and that a low-caloric food or beverage effective for preventing obesity may be obtained by adding such polysaccharide to sugar and the like.
However, it has been found that such kind of polysaccharide does not inhibit absorption of sugar and therefore glucose through the intestinal tract and even if this polysaccharide is present, glucose is normally absorbed from the intestinal tract. Thus the polysaccharide contributes nothing to reduction of the calorie intake of sugar.
The Food Indication Permission Standard established by the Ministry of Public Welfare of Japan defines "a low-calorie food" as--a food of which calorie intake is less than 50% of that of an ordinary food of the same kind--. Even if the increase in blood sugar content is reduced by 50% from a normal level by use of the polysaccharide, this does not directly lead to reduction of the calorie intake by one half. The reason is that if a hormone (for example, insulin) is secreted in a large amount, the blood sugar level is seemingly reduced.
Accordingly, even if only reduction of the blood sugar level is taken into consideration, a low-calorie food or beverage effective for preventing obesity cannot be provided.